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Sunday, February 10, 2019

Latest Signal from Russia's Spektr-R Space Radio Telescope Received on February 5

The latest signal from Russia’s Spektr-R space radio telescope was received by the US-based Green Bank station on February 5, a rocket and space industry source has told TASS.

The source said the signal was sent by the telescope’s system, which transmits scientific data to ground stations.

"The latest signal was detected by the Green Bank station on February 5," the source said.

He said that scientists would keep trying to regain control over the faulty satellite.

On January 11, problems with Spektr-R were reported by the media. Russian Academy of Sciences member and chief of the Astrospace Center of the Lebedev Physics Institute (RadioAstron project client) Nikolai Kardashov told TASS that the signal from the space apparatus continued to be received but there were problems with controlling the satellite.

Roscosmos later told the media that space satellites control group specialists were trying to eliminate the satellite’s glitches. Also, the space corporation said that the radio telescope had exceeded its expected life cycle by 2.5 times.

The Spektr-R was launched in 2011 and the warranty period of its active operation expired back in 2014. Before this year, the radio telescope continued tackling targeted tasks.